High court ruling removes Louisiana from preclearance

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Changes to Louisiana's voting laws, election districts and precinct locations no longer need federal approval
before taking effect, under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Tuesday that stopped enforcement of one piece of the Voting Rights
Act.

Secretary of State Tom Schedler said the 5-4
decision means Louisiana doesn't have to follow a "preclearance"
requirement
mandated in the 1965 law, unless Congress redesigns the formula
that determines which states and municipalities must submit
election changes.

The Supreme Court didn't strike down the
pre-clearance rule itself. The justices invalidated the formula that has
required
mainly Southern states to get Washington's approval for voting
laws, saying it does not account for racial progress and societal
changes across the country.

Gov. Bobby Jindal applauded the high court's ruling.

"The court recognized that states can fairly design our own maps and run our own elections without the federal government.
The ruling says that all states and all people should be treated equally," Jindal, a Republican, said in a statement.

Louisiana was one of nine states, along with
local areas in six other states, whose election maps and voting laws
required
review from the U.S. Justice Department before they could take
effect, to ensure the laws were free of discrimination in places
with a history of inequitable treatment of blacks or other
minorities.

Implications of the court ruling likely won't be immediately noticeable in Louisiana.

State lawmakers already have redrawn U.S.
House, legislative and education board districts after the latest
census, and those
maps received clearance from the Justice Department in 2011. Those
district maps were expected to govern state elections for
a decade, until the next federal census data is released.

Schedler said only a handful of
municipalities and local school boards were awaiting approval for their
elected district redesigns
and now won't need Justice Department clearance.

But the secretary of state's office will
feel the impact of the change quickly. The office won't have to get
federal preclearance
of routine changes to voting precincts and registration forms or
other minor election adjustments.

"Changing a precinct from one side of the street to the other, we had to get preclearance," Schedler said.

Schedler, a Republican, supported removal of the preclearance requirement, saying Louisiana has made significant strides since
the Voting Rights Act was passed.

"I've been saying for some time that I
thought it was time for the Supreme Court to review it because the data
was so stale,
50 years old. Things have changed," Schedler said. "Louisiana
truly has changed from 1965, and I'm fully committed to ensuring
that trend continues."

The leader of the Louisiana Democratic Party, state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, issued a statement saying she was disappointed
with the court ruling.

"We vow to continue the fight to ensure
every citizen — regardless of race, economic background, age and gender —
has equal
access to the ballot box. There is nothing more American than the
act of voting, and we must remember how hard those who went
before us fought to make sure all Americans can exercise this
right."

Schedler said while Congress can reconsider the issue of who should be subject to preclearance, he's not necessarily expecting
Congress to come up with a new formula soon, if at all, because of Washington gridlock.

"Does Congress revisit it, and if they do, are they ever able in that mess up there to agree on what it should be?" Schedler
said.